What substrate do you use for your Boa?

[Razaiel]

I have just read a caresheet which says that aspen is the best substrate for boas - until then I was going to keep my new acquisition (we pick her up Saturday and she is one year old) on a mixture of newspaper and paper towels with maybe some machine shredded/recycled paper thrown in.

But after reading the caresheet (RioBravo Reptiles) I'm not so sure .... but I know a lot of the breeders and keepers swear by the newspaper/.paper towel stuff.

[Shelby]

I use newspaper for every snake I have except for my burrowing sand boas. My boa constrictors do great on newsprint.

[monkeywrench133]

I use both Aspen and newspaper, not together though. They both have their advantages, you can spot clean aspen but not newspaper, but newspaper is cheaper and messes on newspaper are easier to clean up, just ball up the newspaper and you're done, but it doesn't look as appealing as aspen. You can't go wrong with either.

For a new acquisition, I'd recommend newspaper to start, its easier to spot mites and treat mites than on aspen.

[frankykeno]

I'd start off with newspaper/paper towels so you can spot any buggies (hopefully that won't be an issue though) and also it's so much easier if you want to collect a fecal sample. We currently keep Rauri the BCI on a mix of aspen/cypress mulch. I like the aspen for it's loft and the cypress for it's nice humidity retention as Rauri's in a big glass viv. He does seem to enjoy burrowing about in it occasionally.

[recycling goddess]

i use aspen for my hog island and carefresh for my kenyan sand boa.

i also treat all my snakes enclosures with Provent-a-Mite before they come home so mites aren't an issue for them.

[cassandra]

We have Carmen our BCC on a mix of aspen and cypress mulch at the moment, but I'm not going to get any more cypress and just stick with aspen.

[fish21]

all my snakes are on orchid bark. and do great on it.

[ssscales]

Kraft Indented Paper, love the stuff and works great!

[4theSNAKElady]

I use pelleted recycled newspaper for most of my snakes.

[Razaiel]

Thanks for your replies I guess I will definitely start off on the newspaper/paper towels - then probably move to the aspen later on. I'm not worried myself about how it looks so much as safety and what substrate the snake itself would prefer. My hoggy loves pushing herself through the loose substrate - sometimes she's completely hidden under it except for closer inspection revealing an air-hole with a little upturned scale deep inside it